Memorial Day and Others!

Okay, so it's been a while. Last week was a blur planning and packing for our Reeth family trip to Yosemite... how many burp cloths do you pack for a spitter? (I packed 20, and we went through about 10.)

On Saturday morning, Tim and I woke up with Miles's early morning feeding and hit the road at about 6 am. The thought was to miss traffic and to get some miles underneath us before he woke up irritated to be in his car seat. We travelled quickly and stopped for gas and a bathroom break in Modesto. Miles slept all the way there. At the gas station, we fed him, burped him, and put him back in his car seat where he slept (again!!) all the way into the valley. He was a champ in the car seat and there was little to no fussing the entire way there. We arrived at about 10:00 and were told we couldn't get into our room until 3. At about 12, after feeding, changing, and crying in the lobby, Tim got us into our room. The rest of the Reeths arrived soon thereafter to get the weekend started!

Though the weather wasn't great - it drizzled and rained on Saturday afternoon, we still headed into the park to drive around the valley floor and to stretch our legs. Even in the rain, Yosemite is beautiful.

On Sunday morning, we headed into the park for a hike. It wasn't raining at the time, but it was pretty chilly. We ended up probably walking for about 6 - 7 miles. I fed the little man on the trail and popped him back into the Baby Bjorn where he promptly fell back asleep. Tim carried him the whole time, and I think is still a little sore from it!!

That night, we went down to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner. Miles was hungry so he was fed first and then calmed down and watched the rest of us eat from Tim's lap. We then all went to hang out in Kevin & Debbie's room. The most interesting part of the evening was watching Miles watch his cousins Cody (4 1/2) & Kiley (2 1/2). He was transfixed as they ran around the room playing. That night, we all collapsed into bed, and Miles actually went 8 hours between feedings!!!

The ride home was uneventful, but we got home tired. This week has further been exhausting with Miles sleeping very poorly for 2 nights and then me sleeping very poorly while he slept.

I had lunch on Wednesday with Beth Baptist - my mommy mentor. Miles spent the entire lunch well behaved in his car seat on the table. As soon as we got him into the car and moving, he slumped over asleep. On Thursday I went into the office to have lunch with my manager. Again Miles was perfectly behaved in his car seat on the table. He had a crowd around him and I think he liked the attention. Before we were done talking, he got a little fussy so I pulled him out and rocked him to sleep while maintaining a work conversation... pretty funny. Lastly, today I had the mommy's group over for lunch again today. It's amazing the conversations we have - and only relevant for people with children our age. It's wonderful to be connected to people my age in my situation. That's about it. Miles is taking a big-boy nap in his crib right now, so I've had the rare opportunity to be on the computer and the clean the kitchen... all important things!!!

I also uploaded more photos to flickr.

Back on Track

Miles spent the better part of the weekend and early week still recovering from his shots last week. The good news is that he seems to have finally recovered! As you can see from the video below, happy Miles is back - and no one is more thrilled than me!

Today, we had lunch again with the girls. Miles was a perfect gentleman... except for when he ripped a giant turd a the lunch table. But OTHER than that, he was great! It's nice to have our sweet little man back. I love spending the time after a feeding with him when he is alert, happy, comfortable, and chatty. What fun!

Happy Little Guy

Miles is already all about the 4x4 and driving in the mud!!!

"Coo"nversation

Miles and Grandma having a little dialog.

2 Months!!!

Wow. It's really been 2 months? On one hand, it feels so short, I can't believe that this little person is already 2 months old. On the other hand, I am so tired and weary that I can't believe it's only been 2 months.

All that aside, Miles is healthy and doing great! We took him to the doctor's on Friday for his 2 month healthy baby check up. Turns out he's healthy! Or at least he was when we entered the office. By the time we left, he'd been injected with 4 different viruses including Polio and Hepititus... yup, he got his 4 immunization shots. Ughs. He ended up sleeping more or less all day on Friday which makes you know how hard his little body is working to develop the immunities to fight these illnesses. So sad! The shots themselves were awful. Tim held him down while the nurse did the injections. I held his face and spoke peacefully to him, but you should have seen his look when each of the shots hit his leg - eyes wide open, startled, and in pain. I really never hope to see that look again, but I know I will. Breaks your heart.

On the plus side, he is growing and doing great! He now weighs 11 lbs 3 oz in the 50th percentile, measures 23.25 inches, in the 60th percentile, and his head is in the 75th percentile. Apparently, we have a longish, skinnyish, big headed boy.... who we adore.

This weekend, he hasn't quite been his smiley self, but we know that has to do with the shots and the heat wave. The temp should cool down over the next couple of days and he should feel better soon. The good news is that he isn't due for more shots for another 2 months -- that's double his life!!

Miles's "Shower"

We gave Miles a bath on Sunday that ended up being a bit of a shower for our little love. He handled it reasonably well, but there were a couple of tears during the event.

Mother Day Quotes

Stumbled upon these quotes and thought I would publish it here in appreciation for Moms. May take a while to get thru, there are ore than a few...grab a soft chair and a glass of wine.



Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love. ~Mildred B. Vermont

The best conversations with mothers always take place in silence, when only the heart speaks. ~Carrie Latet

An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy. ~Spanish Proverb

What are Raphael's Madonnas but the shadow of a mother's love, fixed in permanent outline forever? ~Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own. ~Aristotle

Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials. ~Meryl Streep

Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother. ~Oprah Winfrey

My mom is a neverending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune. ~Graycie Harmon

Only mothers can think of the future - because they give birth to it in their children. ~Maxim Gorky

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. ~Irish Proverb

There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it. ~Chinese Proverb

A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after. ~Peter De Vries

No one in the world can take the place of your mother. Right or wrong, from her viewpoint you are always right. She may scold you for little things, but never for the big ones. ~Harry Truman

Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible. ~Marion C. Garretty

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights. ~Adabella Radici

She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along. ~Margaret Culkin Banning

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

[A] mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled. ~Emily Dickinson

My mother loved children - she would have given anything if I had been one. ~Groucho Marx

It takes a woman twenty years to make a man of her son, and another twenty minutes for another woman to make a fool of him. ~Helen Rowland

God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers. ~Jewish Proverb

The phrase "working mother" is redundant. ~Jane Sellman

A little girl, asked where her home was, replied, "where mother is." ~Keith L. Brooks

Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease. ~Lisa Alther

Now, as always, the most automated appliance in a household is the mother. ~Beverly Jones

Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. ~Pearl S. Buck


Mothers are the necessity of invention. ~Bill Watterson

Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not. ~James Joyce

The desolation and terror of, for the first time, realizing that the mother can lose you, or you her, and your own abysmal loneliness and helplessness without her. ~Francis Thompson

A mother's happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories. ~Honoré de Balzac

A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all. ~Washington Irving

The only mothers it is safe to forget on Mother's Day are the good ones. ~Mignon McLaughlin

That best academy, a mother's knee. ~James Russell Lowell

A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them. ~Victor Hugo

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his. ~Oscar Wilde

The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men - from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

The tie which links mother and child is of such pure and immaculate strength as to be never violated. ~Washington Irving

My mom is literally a part of me. You can't say that about many people except relatives, and organ donors. ~Carrie Latet

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. ~Honoré de Balzac

There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one." ~Jill Churchill

The precursor of the mirror is the mother's face. ~D.W. Winnicott

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children. ~William Makepeace Thackeray

My mother had a slender, small body, but a large heart - a heart so large that everybody's joys found welcome in it, and hospitable accommodation. ~Mark Twain

The mother's heart is the child's school-room. ~Henry Ward Beecher

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? ~Milton Berle

Mother - that was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries. ~T. DeWitt Talmage

Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother. ~Moorish Proverb

All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother. ~Abraham Lincoln

Mother's love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved. ~Erich Fromm

One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters. ~George Herbert

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren

A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary. ~Dorothy Canfield

Women are aristocrats, and it is always the mother who makes us feel that we belong to the better sort. ~John Lancaster Spalding

My First Mother's Day

Wow. Mother's Day!!

Tim and Miles started off the day perfectly for me... with extra sleep! It couldn't have been any nicer. After I finally woke up, we headed down to San Jose as a family to pick up some nursing essentials (bra and 2 shirts) which are great! We then headed home for a little more R&R.

It's amazing to think that this little person has come into our lives. We just adore spending time together as a family... though wish that more of it was spent sleeping!

Some more photos of me and Miles... and of his bath cane be found on Flickr.

Miles's Girlfriends

My mommy's group only has little girls in it, making Miles quite the hit of the party. The girls are all drooling over him, but he doesn't seem too interested in them yet -- but he hasn't really found his hands yet so who's to blame him.

Miles, Maddy, Eliana, and Malia

We took this picture yesterday. As cute as this is, I can't imagine what their view was like. We were just as huddled together pointing and giggling the whole time. It was quite the photo shoot.

8 Weeks!

Miles is 8 weeks today! Crazy. Though we still aren't sleeping through the night (I am told to expect that around 3 - 4 months) Miles has had some great new "Tones" this week. Some highlights:

1. For the first time, he fell asleep in his car seat and stayed asleep when it stopped moving. I walked to Tina's house yesterday (my Mommy's group) and Miles fell asleep half way there. He stayed asleep in the stroller in her front hall for about 2 hours! All the other girls had their babies on their laps and I was baby-less for the better part of it. It felt a little funny.
   
2. He keeps getting chattier. He fully contributed to the conversation (once he woke up) yesterday at the Mommy's group. He was the only one to coo as we all talked.... making him doubly the most super cute baby there - but I might be biased.
3. He's getting used to the car seat more and more. He does cry when I put him in it initially, but more often than not calms down.
4. He's fully grown out of his newborn diapers. I was probably stretching using them to this point, but I was resistant to throwing away unsoiled diapers. He outgrew the pampers in the waistline and has outgrown the huggies in how much they can hold. (See yesterday's blow out!) He's also peeing more and more at night and peed through 3 diapers, his jammies, and his swaddle blankets in the last 2 nights. We do have a couple (like 6) diapers left, but I am throwing in the towel... it's not worth the laundry!
5. He is increasingly more awake - which is super fun... when he isn't crying!!
6. He blows bubbles now - we can't figure out how he does it, but he is becoming a frothy little guy.
   
7. He actually let us eat dinner at the dining room table tonight while he was in the swing. Given, we had to eat quickly, but this is still big.
   

Such a little boy

It's becoming more and more clear that Miles does little boy things and likes little boy things:

1. He burps
2. He farts
3. He spits up / vomits
4. He likes loud music
5. He prefers Tim's truck - much more calm than in the Lexus
6. He likes off-roading in the stroller
7. He perks up when Dad gets home and starts singing

It's been really amazing to watch him grow and start to turn into a wonderful little-farting-man. :)

Miles's Future Therapy Sessions

In what surely will cause Miles to have to go to therapy as a teenager, I am running the risk of publishing the following photo...

There was poop in his arch!! Guess who is doing laundry this morning???

A New Routine!

In search of a good place to get in shape, Tim took me up to the Sawyer Camp Trail up by the Crystal Springs resevoirs off of 280. It is a great trail for walking / jogging with Miles in the stroller. We walked out about 2 miles and then walked / jogged on the way back to the car. It was wonderful to get out in the sunshine and away from cars with the little guy. We got a trail map of other paved trails around the area, and may check out another one tomorrow, but my goal is to go back to Sawyer Camp 3 times during the upcoming week. We were so proud of ourselves for the exercise, that we came home, ate Doritos, had a beer, and otherwise put not the healthiest things into our bodies. Oh well, you have to start somewhere!

More photos of Dad playing with Miles up on Flickr.

Miles is auditioning for The Exorcist

Miles has always spit up a little after feedings... okay, that may be an understatement, but this morning was such a spit up, I think he may be emulating the vomiting scene in The Exorcist. We had just finished dressing to go out for breakfast (both Miles and Me), when the little bugger completely soaked my shirt, my undershirt, my jeans, his onesy, and the floor... as such we dirtied another 2 burp clothes trying to clean up the mess. Before we could leave the house, we needed to start the dressing process all over again. We are fully ensconced in the stage where it takes us an extra 15 minutes at least to leave the house!!

Final Post Partum Check Up

So yesterday I had my final post partum check up - and all looks good! That means I now have the go ahead to start exercising and went for a run / jog today. It also means I don't need to go to the OB/GYN until August for my annual check up! (I don't much like going, you see.) With the final report card in, it makes me look back on my pregnancy with a little distance and some reflection. I had a pretty easy pregnancy overall, below are some of the highlights:

• - I carried small, so I only ever really had 1 maternity wardrobe. I know other girls who went through 3 distinct sets of clothes. It has been the same pants for me since October. The only bad news is that I am still in them...
  
• - Other than 2 migraines in the first trimester, I felt great - no morning sickness which means I never had to puke in the bathroom at work (a huge going-in fear).
  
• - My belly button never popped.
• - Labor was ok - I didn't need any major interventions. Though the vomiting wasn't to swell, the epidural more than made up for it.
  
• - With all the raging hormones, I was pretty even keeled - I did have some meltdowns and tantrums, but Tim and I were expecting worse.
  
• - We got a beautiful healthy little boy named Miles. Even if it was the worst pregnancy in the world, it would still be worth it.